The surprise announcement elicited disbelief, then jubilation from the crowd of 396 graduates at Morehouse College’s commencement in May, and from onlookers like Xavier Antoine, a junior who was photographing the celebration.

“This is my class, 2019, and my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans,” Robert F. Smith, the richest black man in America and this year’s commencement speaker, told the crowd at Morehouse, a historically black men’s college in Atlanta.

The extraordinary and unexpected pledge also led other Morehouse men like Mr. Antoine, who has taken out several student loans, to ask the inevitable question: What about the Class of 2020?

Morehouse sought to answer that last week by unveiling a new program in which the school will solicit donations that would go directly to paying off its students’ loans. The plan, which also includes studying how reducing debt affects graduates’ choices after college, follows efforts by politicians, state governments and individual universities over the last few years to reduce or, in some cases, eliminate tuition.

But the move takes on even more significance at the historically black college, where officials view it as one more tool to help its graduates reduce the vast wealth gap between black and white households, and students see it as in line with professors’ counseling to pursue their passions with an eye toward giving back to their communities.

“We very much see this as enabling our students to more effectively and more powerfully fulfill the mission of the college, which is leadership and service,” David A. Thomas, the college’s president, said in an interview.

Under the plan, donors would be able to direct their gifts either to entire classes of students, or narrowly to those who pursue lower-paying professions with altruistic missions, such as teaching, which a quarter of Morehouse freshmen list as an interest, the president said, but far fewer pursue.

The program was born out of the interest that other donors showed after Mr. Smith’s gift, which generated national headlines and a flood of calls from alumni who wanted to add to his donation, Mr. Thomas said.

Mr. Antoine, 21, of Inglewood, Calif., receives financial assistance, has earned scholarships and has worked as a residential adviser while studying sociology at Morehouse. But he still expects to graduate with up to $50,000 in debt. He said his mother always tells him to follow his heart, but the knowledge of his outstanding loans sits in the back of his mind, and will play a big part in whether he pursues graduate school right out of college or works for a few years to save up the cash.

“I wouldn’t want to put that burden on her,” he said of his mother. “So if I can’t afford graduate school or I don’t get a full-ride scholarship, it’s going to have to be on the back burner right now because I have to put food on my plate.”

More than 44 million people hold student loan debt totaling roughly $1.6 trillion, and black students borrow and default at disproportionate rates, according to an analysis of Education Department data by the Brookings Institution. The analysis showed that 38 percent of black students who began college in 2004 defaulted on their loans within 12 years, as opposed to 12 percent of white students, which researchers attribute in part to differences in family wealth.

Money was on Victor Barkley’s mind when he applied to colleges, but he said the opportunities he had at Morehouse were worth the tens of thousands of dollars in debt he and his family have accrued. Mr. Barkley, 20, a rising senior from Silver Spring, Md., who is working as a finance intern at Boeing this summer, said the college’s plan to reduce students’ debt load would allow him to take more risks in his career.

“That would just allow for more opportunity,” he said. “I’d have no liabilities and I’d be able to put that money back in my community or further invest in myself.”

Erik Holston Jr. also viewed the new program as a chance to spread the benefits he has had as a student at an elite college. Mr. Holston arrived at Morehouse determined to be a lawyer, but his friends and professors encouraged him to follow his heart and pursue entrepreneurship, in part because of his desire to uplift others.

“I want to do something that’s going to help me put myself in the best position possible,” said Mr. Holston, 21, a rising senior from Chicago. “When you have that position and power, you can change lives” as Mr. Smith did.

“I’d love to do something just like that one day for Morehouse,” he said.

Mr. Smith’s announcement in May appeared to take even school officials by surprise, and the details of his gift — and its total cost — have not yet been announced. Likewise, Morehouse’s plan doesn’t indicate exactly how much students might save, but students are excited that Mr. Smith’s promise has resulted in more donors’ desire to pay down their debts.

Like many of his peers, Mr. Antoine was thrilled for his older friends when he heard the billionaire vow to wipe out their loans.

“Then I told my mom, I wish he’d do it again,” he said. “I hoped putting that in the air would make some other people come out this year and say, ‘Shoot, let’s do the same.’”

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports on national news. He is from upstate New York and previously reported in Baltimore, Albany, and Isla Vista, Calif. @nickatnews

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 11 of the New York edition with the headline: Morehouse to Seek Donations To Help Pay Off Student Loans. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe